IMPACT: International Journal of Research in

Business Management (IMPACT: IJRBM)

ISSN(E): 2321-886X; ISSN(P): 2347-4572
Vol. 3, Issue 6, Jun 2015, 1-14
Impact Journals

FACTOR DETERMINANTS OF E-CONSUMERS' SHOPPING

CART-DROPOUTS IN DEVELOPING ECONOMIES
JIGYASANARANG
School of Management Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, southeastern Punjab, India

ABSTRACT
With emerging e-marketplace incurring huge transaction losses, there is a need to expand research in the online
non-buying behaviour especially with respect to Indian online consumers with their cultural influences being our frame of
reference. India's buzzing e-commerce space has huge potential and its consumer base has its own socio-cultural
preferences that creates a distinct gap well in need of research in the area of online shopping This empirical paper is an
attempt to understand the non-buying behavior, mainly the factors, that determine the online cart-abandonment by econsumers in developing economies.

KEYWORDS: E-Consumers, Economies

INTRODUCTION
Electronic commerce has changed the face of business forever and is constantly transforming the shape of
emerging economies as much as or more than for the emergent economies. Global E-commerce for that matter has grown
13 percent annually for the past 5 years.
The e-commerce has provided avenues for the developed markets to foray into zones of huge growth and boosting
returns in developing market.
Online retail expansions through web channels is the low risk high potential reach to the e-consumers- existing
and new, with a need for immediate impact having a long-term advantage.
E-commerce as it is commonly known is the use of technology to conduct financial transactions online.Any brick
and mortar store can become an e-commerce business by adding a virtual storefront with an online catalog.
E-commerce may occur within and between three basic participant groups business, government, ande-consumers .
Understanding the Flow of Operations Faced by the E Business Website Visitor
The e-consumer behavior is one of high uncertainty and unpredictability. This introduces favorable and
unfavorable consequences, favorable being a successful purchase transaction and unfavorable being either a random visit
or an abandoned cart with a supposed purchase intent. Foremost, there could be a scenario when a person reaches the home
page (entry page) of any website and without clicking anywhere else on the page during, simply leaves the home page
within the stipulated time period of a single session. This phenomenon is called Bounce Rate. Therefore, we can calculate
bounce rate as the ratio of total number of visitors of only entry page in a session over the total number of visitors of the
website. A bounce can occur due to various reasons like clicking a link to other website, closing the browser window,
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Jigyasanarang

clicking the back button to try the search again or a session timeout.
As a thumb rule, 50% bounce rate is the industry average. So, if the bounce rate for a website is above 60%, its a
sign of tension and if it is above 80%, then there certainly is a problem at our hands. A lower bounce rate means the
customers are engaged whereas a high bounce rate means that the entry page is not customer engaging.An important
measure is not that the bounce rate is high or low, but whether it is changing continuously or not.
Next is the cart abandonment rate. Known as virtual cart abandonment rate, we define this behavior as the
visitors placement of item(s) in the online shopping cart without making a purchase of any item(s) during that online
shopping session. It is very important to study how and why consumers abandon the shopping cart.

LITERATURE REVIEW
There has been study using Critical Indent Techniques in with factors critical in creating the online purchasing
experiences (OLDENBURGER et al. 2008). It has also been critical for the banking sector and from US perspective
integrated model was developed understanding the effect of e-commerce in US private sector bank. (Kannabiran and
Narayan 2005).(Hsu et al.)Studied the e-business use in US firms.There has been extensive research with perspective of
international e-commerce among international business firms.(Xu et al. 2002). It has also been studied with a software
project execution has been determining factor in E-business project success (Tiwana and McLean 2003). Challenges that
India needs to address to be in competitive e-commerce are discussed by Kuthiala 2002. The internet itself as a medium
has been instrumental in services business as discussed by Rahman and Bhattachraya which has eventually became
symbolic green pasture for a business model like E-commerce.The need to give adequate attention to consumer and
product characteristics while designing their e-marketing strategies for indian consumer has been explored( Jain and Jain
2011). In the Asia-Pacific region, the e-business race has been lagging behind the developed countries (Javalgi et al. 2005).
The benefits of e-credit in online payment system has been highlighted (Lowry 2006).The emergence of e-commerce as a
core component of e-business and the roadmap for the successful implementation process of such a business has been
captured by Chuang and Shaw 2005. Schwartz 2002 captured the EBay as the E-commerce bright spot with 73% bounce, a
kind of phenomenon that has not yet seen the light of day on Indian soils. Tedeschi 1999 has mentioned the cart technology
and raised the need to push the shopper to buyer. Deals by subscription to build a customer relation is discussed by Anne et
al. 2004 with the frustrating shopping experience and the care the online shopper needs to take using such subscription
deals against the malpractices of some online sites. The completely nuclear view of the shopping cart with its description
and type of systems vendors were offering is described by Wilson et al. 2006. The shopping experiences online needs
commitment as a key attitudinal antecedent to Web shopper loyalty (Thatcher and George 2004). Industry studies report
that an average of 65.95% of online shoppers have abandoned their electronic cart in the past (Baymard Ecommerce
Usability Report 2011). Different perspectives needs to be understood as to why such frequent abandonment occurs and the
true intent to complete the purchase online or at a land-based store. In a conventional online shopping experience, factors
such as social influences, lack of availability, high price, financial status, and time pressure play a critical role to bring
about a favorable or unfavorable outcome (Howard and Sheth 1969). Online shoppers search and shop online for freedom,
control or fun (Wolfinbarger and Gilly 2001).

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Factor Determinants of E-Consumers' Shopping

Cart-Dropouts in Developing Economies

In the online shopping context, consideration occurs as a shopper places an item(s) of interest into their cart. Some
shoppers may place items under consideration in their cart as a wish list, a way to bookmark the product, casual intent,
or to obtain total cost. Hence, shoppers may use their cart to help taper options to a consideration set to be evaluated
further.
The survey of related studies reveals that there is very limited research in the online non-buying behaviour in
context of emerging e-marketplace, Indian online consumers with their cultural influences being our frame of reference.
Given the huge potential of the developing market at home and a distinct and typical socio-cultural taste, there is a need to
address this existing gap in research in the area of online shopping and that holds the rationale of the study at hand.
I through this study intend to study key drivers of online cart-abandonment by e-consumers for this non-buyer behavior in
developing economies.
Hypotheses Development

Based on our literature review, the likely hypotheses that I would consider would be:

H1: The more an e-consumer uses an online cart with casual intent (out of boredom or for fun), the more likely
he/she is to abandon it.

H2: The more an e-consumer uses the online cart for experiential shopping , the more likely he/she is likely to
abandon it.

H3: The more an e-consumer looks for promotions/discounts and price advantage, the more likely he/she is to
abandon their online cart.

H4: The more an e-consumer is concerned about the total cost of the order, the more likely he/she is likely to
abandon it.

Data Collection
To test the proposed hypotheses, I intend to conduct an online survey. Surveys intend to represent the real world
data and have samples of 100 respondents. The survey contains questions about various factors hypothesized to be linked
to shopping cart abandonment, measures of the frequency of online cart abandonment, frequency of buying items in the
cart from a land-based store, general questions about consumer online behaviors and demographic characteristics.
A pilot testing would be done with a few respondents to determine the reliability of the survey questionnaire.
Further the main study with adults who shop online is intended to be done. The sample selected would maybe equal
representative of both the genders and have age spread across respondents older than 40, between 31 to 40 years old and
that between 2130 years.
The measures were adapted for independent variables from the literature. Inter correlations tests between the
factors would be done to test a significantly low value of correlation.
I would be doing a factor analysis to determine the theoretical constructs .Finally SEM or regression modeling
would need to be done for the theoretical conceptual model.

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Jigyasanarang

METHOD
In order to test the proposed hypotheses, I conducted an online survey. The survey contained questions about
various factors hypothesized to be linked to shopping cart abandonment, measures of the frequency of online shopping,
frequency of cart abandonment, general questions about consumer online behaviors and demographic characteristics.
The reliability construct was tested with the Cronbach alpha for the initial and the final stage of survey.
Subsequently, the survey was floated across social media platforms like FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn and mailed across
the respondents as well. The target group was the urban and semi-urban male and female population within the age group
of 21 to 40 years of age who would form the most avid online or e-content consumers.
Table 1
Dependent Variables(DV)
Tendency to abandon the
shopping cart during online
shopping.

Independent Variables(IV)
Entertainment value (IV1)
Using the cart as a research
and organizational
tool/experiential shopping
tool(IV2)
Wait for a lower/sale
price(IV3)
Concern about the costs of the
order(IV4)

Scales for Dependent Variable (DV) and IV (Independent Variables)

I have chosen a 5 pointLikert Scaleeliciting the following responses: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neither agree
nor disagree, Agree, Strongly agree.

We treat the 1-5 scale as Interval since we are giving equal intervals in the range of 1 to 5.
I have chosen the same scale for both dependent as well as the independent variables.

RESULTS
Cronbach Alpha Tests
As we know, Cronbach's alpha is the most common measure of internal consistency ("reliability"). Here, I have
multiple Likert questions in this survey that form a scale and we wish to determine if the scale is reliable.

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Factor Determinants of E-Consumers' Shopping

Cart-Dropouts in Developing Economies

Cronbach Alpha Computed Through SPSS for DV and All Ivs per the Hypotheses
DV Online cart abandonment, Cronbach Alpha = 0.648
Table 2
Inter-Item Correlation Matrix
Do you place
items in the
Do you shop
online shopping
online with intent How often do
cart with intent to
to purchase
you purchase
purchase them
during a single online?
immediately or
Internet session?
leave them
without buying?
Do you place items in the
online shopping cart with
intent to purchase them
immediately or leave them
without buying?

1.000

.426

.382

Do you shop online with

intent to purchase during a
single Internet session?

.426

1.000

.333

How often do you purchase

online?

.382

.333

1.000

H1 Entertainment value IV1, Cronbach Alpha = 0.703

Table 3
Inter-Item Correlation Matrix
Do you select
Do you select
and place items and place items
in the shopping in the shopping
cart just to
cart as a
alleviate
bookmark for
boredom?
future buying?

Do you use the

shopping cart as
a wishlist for
myself?

Do you select and place items

in the shopping cart just to
alleviate boredom?

1.000

.247

.402

Do you select and place items

in the shopping cart as a
bookmark for future buying?

.247

1.000

.664

Do you use the shopping cart

as a wishlist for myself?

.402

.664

1.000

H2 Using the cart as a research and organizational/experiential tool IV2, Cronbach Alpha = .832

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Table 4
Inter-Item Correlation Matrix
Of your overall
shopping (in a
If you visit
store, on the
Internet stores 5
Internet, via
times, how many
catalog or by
times do you
mobile device),
visit with an
how often do you
intention to buy
only research
immediately?
products online
and not buy?
Of your overall shopping (in
a store, on the Internet, via
catalog or by mobile device),
how often do you only
research products online and
not buy?

1.000

.729

If you visit Internet stores 5

times, how many times do
you visit with an intention to
buy immediately?

.729

1.000

H3 Wait for a lower/sale price IV3, Cronbach Alpha = 0.618

Table 5
Inter-Item Correlation Matrix
Do you place
items in the cart Do you place
to check out the items in the
delivery options, shopping cart
payment options because they are
and stock
on sale?
availability?

Do you place
items in the
shopping cart
because the
Internet retailer
offers free
shipping?

Do you place items in the cart

to check out the delivery
options, payment options and
stock availability?

1.000

.311

.385

Do you place items in the

shopping cart because they
are on sale?

.311

1.000

.354

Do you place items in the

shopping cart because the
Internet retailer offers free
shipping?

.385

.354

1.000

H4 Concern about the costs of the order IV4, Cronbach Alpha = 0.668

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Factor Determinants of E-Consumers' Shopping

Cart-Dropouts in Developing Economies

Table 6
Inter-Item Correlation Matrix
Do you place
Do you select
items in the cart
and place items because you are
in the shopping curious about the
cart to compare price and other
prices?
details of the
product?
Do you select and place items
in the shopping cart to
compare prices?

1.000

.502

Do you place items in the cart

because you are curious
about the price and other
details of the product?

.502

1.000

REGRESSION ANALYSIS
Testing the Hypothesis

In order to test the hypothesis we first organized the data collected from the survey responses in the form columns
with the use of the 5-point intent scale named:

Tendency to abandon the shopping cart during online shopping - (DV)

Entertainment value - (IV1)

Using the cart as a research and organizational tool/experiential shopping tool - (IV2)

Wait for a lower/sale price - (IV3)

Concern about the costs of the order - (IV4)

Correlation matrices between the IVs:

Table 7

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To test the hypothesis we performed regression on the Tendency to abandon the online shopping cart with
independent variables figured in our hypothesis statement.
After performing regression in SPSS we receive the following output:
Table 8

Model

R Square

.368a

.135

Model Summary
Adjusted R
Square

Std. Error of the Estimate

.094

.794111

a. Predictors: (Constant), IV4(Concern about the costs of the order), IV2(Using the cart as a
research and organizational tool/experiential shopping tool), IV3(Wait for a lower/sale price),
IV1(Entertainment value)
Model
1

Sum of Squares

Anovab
df

Mean Square

Regression

8.378

2.095

Residual

53.602

85

.631

Total

61.980

89

Sig.
.014a

3.321

a. Predictors: (Constant), IV4(Concern about the costs of the order), IV2(Using the cart as a
research and organizational tool/experiential shopping tool), IV3(Wait for a lower/sale price),
IV1(Entertainment value)
b. Dependent Variable: DV(Tendency to abandon the shopping cart during online shopping)

Table 9
Coefficientsa
Model

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized
Coefficients

Sig.

3.526

.001

.032

.285

.776

.058

.222

2.117

.037

.080

.110

.078

.725

.470

.038

.017

.237

2.172

.033

Std. Error
.174

Beta

(Constant)

B
.615

IV1(Entertainment value)

.023

.082

IV2(Using the cart as a

research and organizational
tool/experiential shopping
tool)

.123

IV3(Wait for a lower/sale

price)
IV4(Concern about the costs
of the order)

a. Dependent Variable: DV(Tendency to abandon the shopping cart during online shopping)

Regressing further on two IVs 2 and 4:

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Factor Determinants of E-Consumers' Shopping

Cart-Dropouts in Developing Economies

Table 10
Model Summary
Model

R Square

.357a

.128

Adjusted R
Square
.108

Std. Error of the Estimate

.788293

a. Predictors: (Constant), IV4(Concern about the costs of the order), IV2(Using the cart as a
research and organizational tool/experiential shopping tool)
Anovab
Model
Regression
1

Sum of Squares
7.918

df
2

Mean Square
3.959

54.062

87

.621

Residual

F
6.371

Sig.
.003a

Total
61.980
89
a. Predictors: (Constant), IV4(Concern about the costs of the order), IV2(Using the cart as a
research and organizational tool/experiential shopping tool)
b. Dependent Variable: DV(Tendency to abandon the shopping cart during online shopping)

Table 11
Coefficientsa
Model

Standardized
Coefficients

Sig.

5.422

.000

B
.711

Std. Error
.131

Beta

IV2(Using the cart as a

research and organizational
tool/experiential shopping
tool)

.122

.055

.222

2.209

.030

IV4(Concern about the costs

of the order)

.042

.016

.267

2.664

.009

(Constant)

Unstandardized Coefficients

a. Dependent Variable: DV(Tendency to abandon the shopping cart during online shopping)

From the above output we can interpret that, the regression was significant, but only a very small variance in the
tendency to abandon the online shopping cart can be explained by the variance in the other . From the coefficients
table we can infer that the independent variable 2 and 4 is bordering on the lines of being significant.

The regression equation that can be formed to explain the relation between the dependent and independent
variable is:

Tendency to abandon the online shopping cart = 0.711 +.122* Using the cart as a research and organizational
tool/experiential shopping tool+0.042* Concern about the costs of the order

Hence we can comment that the hypothesis, that use of the cart as a research and organizational tool/experiential
shopping tool and concern about the costs of the order increases the tendency to abandon the cart, cannot be
rejected.

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Jigyasanarang

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The study undertaken offers both important theoretical contributions and valuable managerial implications for
online-based retailing.

With a tested theoretical model of the determinants of online shopping cart abandonment, we work towards an
explanation of non-buyer behavior in an online shopping context. The study brings to knowledge by identifying
consumers tendencies to place items in the cart for reasons other than immediate purchase, specifically for
research and organization and for the entertainment value. The initial inhibitors that the online environment had
carried in terms of the buying process, issues such as online privacy and security, are less vocal today.

Managerial Implications for Online Retailers

Organizational use of cart Online cart abandonment lowers shopping transaction conversion rates or may imply a
non-consumer friendly site. It is also used as a measure of consumer dissatisfaction, making an assumption that the
abandoned items represent a lost sale. However, with our findings, we ascertain consumers often leave items in their cart
for reasons other than dissatisfaction with the product, the online retailer or the purchase process. There is tendency as part
of online consumer behavior that online shoppers are accustomed to using their cart as an organized place to hold or store
their desired items, a wish list, and as a tool to track prices for a possible later purchase. Online cart abandonment does not
necessarily mean that the consumer will never make the purchase; rather, consumers may decide to delay their purchases or
purchase decisions. Thus, even abandoned carts serve as a source of useful information for both consumers and retailers.
Many consumers use their online cart as a tool to help gather information prior to visiting a traditional, land-based store.
Concern about price and overall costAnother important driver of cart abandonment is the concern about the total
cost of the order. These findings further highlight that items left in the cart may not necessarily represent a lost sale, but
rather an opportunity to make the sale in the future by sending a promotional offer to the consumer, providing lower or free
shipping on the item(s), or sending a reminder email about the items when the price has been lowered.

LIMITATIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

While the present study offers important contributions to both theory and practice, we recognize some limitations.
First, we employed a sample from a diverse population
Based on online shoppers in India as a developing economy.In terms of further study, the model can be
determined across other fast emerging developing economies with their own economical dynamics and consumer
preferences in certain geographies and determine how to satisfy online shoppers across the world. Further research also
include studying in depth the process of using the cart as an organization tool in order to capture different motivations for
consumer shopping cart use. as a guide for more work on this relatively significant We hope that this current study reflects,
yet under-studied consumer non-buyer behavior driving the unit economics of the emerging e-commerce markets in
developing economies.

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Factor Determinants of E-Consumers' Shopping

Cart-Dropouts in Developing Economies

11

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Cart-Dropouts in Developing Economies

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